Michelle Villarreal/Caller-Times
Teens spent Wednesday learning about job opportunities, touring the Port of Corpus Christi and meeting with U.S. Coast Guard officials as part of a partnership program for troubled youths.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Teens spent Wednesday learning about job opportunities and touring the Port of Corpus Christi and meeting with U.S. Coast Guard officials as part of a partnership program for troubled youths.

Michelle Villarreal/Caller-Times
Teens spent Wednesday learning about job opportunities and touring the Port of Corpus Christi and meeting with U.S. Coast Guard officials as part of a partnership program for troubled youths.

Michelle Villarreal/Caller-Times
Teens spent Wednesday learning about job opportunities, touring the Port of Corpus Christi and meeting with U.S. Coast Guard officials as part of a partnership program for troubled youths.

CORPUS CHRISTI - Itati Reyes' is trying to move past an under the influence charge and think about her future.

The Ray High School student went on a visit with other troubled teens to a hospital where staff showed her samples of blood cells, situations of emergency surgery and taking care of newborns.

Now the 16-year-old is considering pursuing a career as a neonatal nurse.

"I want to take care of babies so I'm going to look into it as a job," she said.

The hospital visit was just one of three that she has attended.

Itati was one of 17 teens who spent Wednesday learning about job opportunities and touring the Port of Corpus Christi and meeting with U.S. Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi as part of a partnership program for troubled youths.

"If you work hard at it you can get a job here," the Port's Director of Communications Patricia Cardenas told the group. "Sometimes you are going to fail, but don't look back. You have to keep going."

In May 2011 County Court-at-Law No. 5 Judge Brent Chesney partnered with the county's juvenile probation department and a local nonprofit to make the two-phase vision a reality and give students who have had trouble with the law a second chance.

"Besides a day off from school, we get to explore what people do as a job," Itati said.

Participants receive hands-on experience in vocational skills and possible careers throughout the Coastal Bend, said Ridge Hammons with HELP (Hammons Education Leadership Programs), a nonprofit that targets at-risk youths.

Probation officers recommended students for the program who are serious about cleaning up their lives, said Chesney, who handles juvenile cases. The program is geared toward juveniles who have misdemeanor and felony charges that involve assaults, graffiti or drug offenses.

"These are kids that truly have a desire to change their lives and want to do something about it," he said. "I haven't had one come back who wasn't taking it seriously."

Nearly two years after the partnership started, more than 100 juveniles have gone through the program with about 85 percent of them successfully completing it by attending three or more work sites.

"A few get mad and storm off, a few don't get it and they re-offend," Hammons said, "but the whole point is to get the kids close enough to the jobs and get them excited about it."

As part of phase two of the program, about 25 percent of those students were linked with mentors, internships and apprenticeships and have revisited some of the work sites on their own, Hammons said.

Chesney said the second phase, which started nearly eight months after phase one, is now the program's focus because it helps put students in their desired careers.

"These are not kids that have good track records of completing anything," he said. "So I'm amazed that 85 percent of the troubled youth have completed this."

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article reported the eligibility requirements for a juvenile program. The program considers juveniles with misdemeanor and felony charges involving assaults, graffiti or drug offenses.